By Huang Qing (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-06 06:30

Lately, the Western press has made a mountain out of a mole hill regarding the quality of Made-in-China products.

The press has tried to demonize Chinese-manufactured goods.

This tars China's image, erodes the reputation of its products and inflicts losses on exporters.

Last month, US toy giant Mattel recalled 20.2 million Chinese-made toys, which caused a big stir in the world. As a matter of fact more than 85 per cent of these toys were manufactured based on the designs and requirements of the US buyer. And the problems were mostly to do with the designs.

As for quality and safety, investigation needs to be conducted to pinpoint the problems and decide who should be held responsible.

Indiscriminately shifting the blame on everything Made-in China without getting to the root of the problem is sheer injustice.

For China, international trade barriers are taking on more diverse forms and becoming more intangible. While there are less trade barriers in the traditional sense, "green" barriers, barriers emphasizing "standards" and "media opinion" barriers keep emerging.

Maliciously publicizing the problems found in a small number of Chinese-made goods is a new trade barrier, in the opinion of this author, and a harmful one.

Currently, more than 200 kinds of Made-in-China products boast huge world sales, the majority being consumer goods. Chinese-made products are accepted by consumers all over the world because they are good in quality and cheap in price. The fact that they are accepted is testimony to their quality.

According to a report by China's Ministry of Agriculture, the acceptance rate of China's farm produce exported to the United States stands at 99.1 per cent and the rate for those shipped to Japan and the European Union is 99.8 per cent.

Tests conducted by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare show that the acceptance rate of imported Chinese agricultural products is higher than the average rate of all imported farm products, and also higher than the rate of those imported from the US and Europe.

The boom in Made-in-China products is the outcome of economic globalization and also the result of rational distribution of global resources. It signifies that global trade is becoming increasingly liberalized.

In this sense, Made-in-China is tantamount to "world-made." Harm done to products made in China is harm done to consumers and companies in many countries.

Behind the finger-pointing at China, lurks increasing protectionism, which is narrow-minded and harmful.

Recently, more than 100 American economists signed a petition to US Congressmen to follow the principles of free trade and boycott the current protectionism targeted at China.

They believe the speedy growth of Sino-American bilateral trade means more affordable commodities, higher productivity, more employment opportunities and higher living standards for both countries. This is the voice of reason. It is worth listening to.

On China's part, the quality of export-oriented companies needs to be raised. These companies must adapt to changing market needs and upgrade their technologies to meet fierce world market competition.

In addition, the economic system in which the domestic companies grow and develop should be improved so that they can be spurred to raise the quality of their products.

The Chinese government pays much attention to the quality problems reported. The State Council, for example, convened a meeting on the quality of products and food safety, launching a four-month campaign to redress the problems. A system is to be set up to monitor all links in the production of goods and food.

The relevant government departments and companies should have a full understanding of the world's established safety and quality criteria, and apply it to goods for export. This is vitally important to safeguarding the credibility of Chinese-made products.

The "crisis of confidence" over Made-in-China products is in a sense a "public-relations crisis".

Public relations are an important element in the business world. This is found to be weak in Chinese companies and should be addressed.

Chinese manufacturing companies are now moving from processing toward creating propriety brands, in this transit period, public relations will play a major role.

Recently, a delegation of American Council of Young Political Leaders paid a visit to China. And their talks with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine gave the visitors a much better understanding of the status quo of China-made goods.

They said they would share this understanding with the American public on their return.

This shows that candid and sincere dialogue is an important way to boost the reputation of China-made goods.

Doing things well and continually improving the quality of goods will lay to rest all the disparaging remarks.

The author is a council member of the China Foundation of International Studies

(China Daily 09/06/2007 page9)